today i went and checked out a four tray excalibur at a local distributor. i was all excited to buy it until i realized it was made of plastic (yes, it took a few minutes to dawn on me, stop laughing). this raised a few flags and i left the store empty handed, suffering some non-buyers remorse.

There are several recent dehydrator threads. This one is probably the most recent. The last post for September 16 (mine) cross references two other threads. I plan to order a stainless steel dehydrator from Sausage Maker later this month.

Wow, the steel dehydrator is $300!! I couldn’t ever justify paying that much, when I know children are starving! But, we’d better not get started on that. I think about this problem too, and the fact that everything we buy comes in bags that no doubt leech into the food. What can you do? Short of grow your own, nothing.

Jeshuabrown, yeah, it’s a little pricey, But, I feel the long range health benefits will far outweigh the cost. There are so many other things I no longer purchase. I’ve also been saving a little every week for the last 5 months, so my budget won’t “gasp” when I make the purchase.

Plastic pre-packaging and styrofoam trays are among my pet peeves, as are plastic shopping bags. And then there’s the issue of all this stuff in our land fills, but that’s a subject for another day (and thread). I’m fortunate that I can purchase virtually all of my fresh produce unpackaged at our local farmer’s market. I usually take fabric shopping bags with me, so it doesn’t even come home in plastic.

By the way, I love your Orange Julius recipe. It’s in my “Five or Less Ingredients” file. Hope you are planning to post more recipes soon.